Dossiers

Privacy - Personal Data

The protection of privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a democratic society, privacy is an enabler for other fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression and to form and join associations. However, some powerful entities now have an interest in weakening the protection of this fundamental right to increase the surveillance of citizens and draw a profit by collecting, processing, storing and trading it. These dangerous practices are already widespread on the Internet.

The legal framework that protects privacy needs to be strengthend and adapted to the digital era. There are currently three major legislative developments.

The decision by the European Court of Justice of the European Union in April 2014 declaring the 2006 Data Retention Directive invalid, will force the European Institutions to draft new regulations and national governments to reconsider their laws that had implemented the Directive.

Procedure file: Personal data protection: processing of data for the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or execution of criminal penalties, and free movement of data